Antidepressants do not modulate estrogen receptor α-mediated gene expression

Summary.

The estrogen receptor α has been shown to be activated both in a ligand-dependent and in a ligand independent fashion. We investigated whether antidepressants may directly activate the estrogen receptor α or enhance ligand-dependent or ligand-independent activation of the estrogen receptor α. Whereas both ligand-dependent and ligand-independent activation of the estrogen receptor α could be demonstrated in transient transfection studies, antidepressants neither directly activated the estrogen receptor α nor did they enhance ligand-dependent or ligand-independent activation. Thus, there are differences between the glucocorticoid receptor and the estrogen receptor α with regard to ligand-independent activation and action of antidepressants.